BMW 330d

A friend of mine got annoyed with his M3 and bought a 330d estate. His had some work done on it and it absolutely flies. No idea what power it's putting out but it wasted another mates supercharged MX5. IIRC 0-60 was in the 5-6 second area. Crazy

Personally I'd love one, i reckon they'd make a sensible everyday car, but with a good chunk of RWD performance when necessary. And they're nice and tunable when you decide you want a bit more.

...erm, why?

I'd love one like my mate bought yesterday.

Sounds like my kind of thing then. :-D

You're getting the terminology all wrong.

It's "347 torques".

Jeez, don't you know nuffink? :-)

If you don't watch, I'll start talking in BMEP in a minute.

Whatever way, I absolutely refuse to join in with the Clarkson inspired dumbing down.

I'm no expert, but standards must be maintained ;-)

Have to rev the nuts off it all the time? Every boy racer thinks you're up for it, even when you're not. High insurance. High vandal potential. Expensive tyres. So on and so forth.

Maybe.

Personally, if you wanted something with that potential, you'd tolerate the above! :)

You need an S60 T5.

Only if you want to go warp speed.

You say that like its a bad thing, when you've got the poke to blow most of them into the weeds. ;-)

I got a quote on one... it's not *that* bad given what it is.

I'll give you that one.

And that one.

I know BMW pissed him off because he took it on a track day and there was a problem with the brakes but BMW refused to renew them as apparently the M3 isn't designed for track use. He got them out of them eventually though. Although he obviously bought another one. Also having gone out it in with him I think the complete insane-ness of it for everyday use was a bit OTT and he probably would have ended up losing his licence.

Obviously a 3 series estate is a lot more practical too!

Would probably cost more to run than the M3 *and* be slower...

I think he was referring to the M3 dude, and was answering "...erm, why?" :-)

See below...

See above... :-)

Yes, I know what you're saying, but after a while it probably gets annoying

I seem to recall that Norfolk police used a Fiesta RS1800i as a sting to catch bad guys* by baiting them** and most caught were, how do I say, those people mature enough to know better.***

Yes

Then again, probably not much worse than anything German, depending on the area. Most vandals only recognise shiny and BMW rather than 2001 BMW M3.

The M5 is expensive on its tyres no matter how hard you drive it. And at £1,000 for a complete set, you probably don't mind using superunleaded! ;)

As I remember, when you buy a new M-series machine, part of the deal is you go to a track day / advanced driver training course...

Heh! A few years ago, the 1.6 Golf GTI was considered a bit too fast for everyday use in some circles.

Erm... yeah. I suppose. ;-)

And if you drive them even in a semi-normal way (this being as close to normal roadmanners in a M-car), you limp to the fuel pump about every day.

I faced a similar dilemma this week-end: go for a 240 HP Legacy (petrol) or for a 185HP Volvo (diesel)? Want a range of 300 km or one of 1000 km?

With the message of a free rechipping (giving the Volvo 226HP and lessening fuel burn by 10%) the contest was over. Guess that during normal working hours I am to become a not-beige but still dull Volvo- man.

Tomorrow Solingen, picking up some Swedish steel, made in Gotenborg.

Everybody needs a M-car... but for the week-end, for the occasional dash of madness. These cars are hard to live with every day, cost an arm and a leg (sometimes 2 legs) if (mis)used every day and then are just plain horrible in trafic jams. Lesson got and learned the hard way.

Tom De Moor

People think you're a special kind of knob when you don't take an overtaking spot which is adequate in something less powerful, and really easy in something as fast as an M3, but instead drive up the arse of the lorry doing

(that was the most recent M3 driver I saw. I think he was a little peeved when I overtook him. On my push-bike :-) )

I don't imply anything - I state outright that the biggest single flaw with the B5/B5.5 passats, based on my experience of several of them is that the handling and ride is poor when compared to the majority of other cars I have driven. My opinion is borne out by the majority opinion and supported by the underlying physics of the suspension design. In fact you are quite possibly the only person I know of who rates the Passat highly on the basis of it's handling.

Hehe. And maybe you need to experience something other than a series of s**te old rovers, golfs and passats - something which can offer anything other than understeer when driven properly.

Right...so you get get it to understeer; that is pretty easy - getting it to do ANYTHING else is what's hard.

A roundabout taken in, let's say the 405: approach, turn slightly to the left, then as you approach the 'apex' smoothly steer right and lift off the accelerator - the back end goes light and swings out slightly, so compensate with a dab of opposite lock, apply power and exit roundabout with a very slight drift and a huge grin. Everything feels beautifully controlled and is repeatable time after time.

You just can't get anything like that in the passat - your options are litterally grip or understeer, regardless of how stiff the shocks are or how wide the tyres it's wearing.

And I state that my personal experience of a B5.5 Sport, not only that, but one with a shitload more power than standard, is that it handled absolutely fine over the 10k miles I covered in it, and in comparison with other supposedly good handling stuff such as the 306 and Focus I recently had the use of.

Never mind the 140 or so other cars I've had in my time.

My B5 wasn't as sharp as this... SteveH seemed to think his was fine if a bit wallowy, something which this Sport, whether you agree with it or not, hasn't been in my experience of driving it.

I've not even claimed its the be all and end all of all handling, it's just not the flawed car you continually and tediously claim it is.